Hi all
Just a quick note to let everyone know that I have changed the name of my blog and Facebook page from Two Pups and a Kitty to Three Pups and Two Kitties. Lucy Kitty is deciding that she wants to take part in our stories more often and of course we have added Miss Bessie Sprout Puppy to our family so hence the new name Three Pups and Two Kitties.
As always thanks for taking the time to read our posts. We really appreciate it.
Over the past few weeks we have noticed changes and definite steps in the right direction in several areas. Bess is learning to be more gentle with “Leave It”, I mean Linus. She seems to be realizing that if she is going to play with him she needs to tone it down. Over the past few days I have seen Linus instigate play like he did when she was smaller, before she grew bigger than he.
Belle has relaxed her “I’m the responsible alpha dog” and has been simply having fun playing and snuggling with Bess.
Bonnie is Bess’s favorite when it comes to a partner in crime. The favorites are still socks and towels and they are getting very good at the “Quick, she’s coming” handoff as well as the innocent,” towel, what towel?” and flashing me a “Aren’t I cute, my Margret?”
This week Bess and I will be finishing up her puppy classes then she will take a bit of a break. In the meantime Greg and I will be taking Bonnie and Belle for 6 weeks of Canine Good Citizen test prep classes. Passing the CGC is the next step towards starting Therapy Dog training.
We’ve been doing a bit of refresher work on the very difficult sit/stay and down/stay. Belle, who this is very challenging for, did well the other day when after working on it by ourselves decided to practice in the midst of everyone. She stuck the sit even when Miss Bouncy Bess and Bonnie came by to get in on the treat action. To their credit Bess and Bonnie both immediately sat without being told 🙂
Behavior wise we are working on Bess not chewing up the couch cover, and as soon as we have mastered that task I will be getting new couch covers for our hairy crew, until then it’s just going to look ratty. When we redirect Bess and give her an approved chew toy in an effort to redirect her, she will chew on it when we are looking then switch back to chewing on what she wants to. We rarely have problems anymore with the older pups except for when Miss “I want to see what’s in your coat pockets” Belle snoops in our coats or Bonnie reverts back to puppy mode. However Miss Bess is very sneaky but we have caught on and know that “this too shall pass”
We appreciate you joining us on our Golden Adventure and would love to hear from you. For day to day happenings we invite you to visit our Two Pups and a Kitty Facebook page.
Take care.
Our Girls
Belle (on the left) stuck the sit even with sisterly distractions!
Towel, what towel?
Belle and Bess cuddling on a cold winter day.
Bess and Linus
Belle
For those of you who may read our Two Pups and a Kitty Facebook page, that don’t know me may feel that my post yesterday about Belle and being diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia might be considered cold. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The back story that new readers may not know, is that early on in our marriage and over the years Greg and I have prayed, talked and dreamed about having a kennel and raising Golden Retrievers. In 2008 after the NIU campus shootings when I witnessed first hand the healing touch that therapy dogs brought to our hurting campus that dream morphed into also having our dogs become certified to be therapy dogs. Due to many factors the time wasn’t right for any of this until a little over 2 years ago when we brought Bonnie and Belle into our lives.
A funny thing happens sometimes to dreams, they evolve until sometimes the reality isn’t anything like the original dream. While we do have three golden retrievers that we love to pieces,the dream of having a kennel has faded into maybe having a litter of puppies (in only the most responsible, breed strengthening way of course which was always our intent). Those who follow our story, ( and I certainly thank you for doing so) know that we are still working on Bonnie and Belle passing the Canine Good Citizen test. And seeing if either of them will qualify for therapy dog status is way down the line.
The next step towards having puppies was to have Bonnie and Belle be tested for hip dysplasia, which we did a few weeks ago. We had discussed before hand that we certainly would not move forward in breeding if they had it. We knew that would be highly irresponsible so when we received Belle’s report yesterday, it was in effect the end of that part of our dream for her at least. It’s hard when you dream something for literally decades to shrug it off and say ok, there is a small amount of grieving and letting go that comes with the end of a dream. That was my emotion while writing the facebook post about it last night.
The biggest feeling though when I read that report was concern for Belle. What the future holds for her medically, how will we best be able to help her as the years go on. She already deals with allergies, and ear infections and now this. Yes, trust me I know that these things are easy issues. I know that so many other dogs are dealing with or have just lost their fight against cancer, are dealing with serious injuries and other very difficult health issues. My heart hurts for those dogs and their families. But for us, right now, today this is our issue with our Belle pup and for us it’s pretty big.
We will be talking with our vet to find out what to look for and how we can best help Belle deal with any pain and or other issues that will be a part of her future with hip dysplasia. As always we will continue to pray and see what Lord has in store for us and our pups as we continue our Golden Adventure.
But this is my crate!
Sleep Over
Bonnie and Belle haven’t been crated in months. They sleep upstairs with us in our bedroom. Bess has two crates is crated when we are gone and at night. When we first brought Bess home she was in a crate in our bedroom at night to be close to us. This became a problem when she had difficulty getting down the stairs and across the house to the pup pen during our middle of the night potty breaks. So we had her sleep at night in her daytime crate to make the distance to the pup pen shorter for her. Bess is basically housebroken now, (let the balloons and streamers fall from the ceiling in celebration!) and in all my humanness I decided that she must be lonely downstairs by herself, so the past couple of nights we had her sleep back upstairs in the crate with us. This morning after a 1 am potty break on our way back upstairs her firmly planted paws told me in no uncertain terms that she prefers to sleep downstairs thank you very much! Ok, no problem I said and put her in her downstairs crate.
Fast forward to two happenings this morning. When Bess came in from the pup pen she went right into her crate, sat down looked at me and yawned clearly not ready to start her day. Then I heard laughter from Greg, who was still upstairs, Bonnie and Belle were curled up together in the crate in our bedroom.
I don’t understand their attachment to the crates but I am glad that the pups feel comfortable in the crates even when they don’t need them.
Such is life with our pups!
Tiaras plus treats equal…. epic failure. Belle clearly hates hers then she took Bonnie’s off and tried to eat it. Bess kept hers on just long enough to snap the picture. So even though we can’t get the cute pics with props from our crew to yours we wish you a happy and blessed 2015. Thanks for reading our posts we hope they make you smile. Oh and for those of you who can take the cute pictures with props. More power to you, you are my heros!
Treats and Tiaras
Belle clearly hates it.
“Bonnie, let me help you get that thing off!”
“Anything for a treat, but hurry up I don’t like this!”
“Good it’s off!”
Belle
Bess and Belle
Bess
Bonnie
Sleep over in Bess’s crate
I love watching our pups sleep. They manage to look cuddly and silly all at the same time.
Bess is growing like a weed, she almost doesn’t fit on her self proclaimed puppy shelf on our coffee table any more.
I have had to intervene in the play between Bess and Linus, Bess plays a bit too rough for Linus’s tastes at times but then other times Linus still instigates the play so they are still fast buddies. Belle will occasionally remind the pair that she was Linus’s buddy first.
Bess is still teaching us about her likes and dislikes, she loves, loves, loves sticks and always has to find one to carry around when she is outside. Her favorite inside toy is the stuffingless fox, I’m not sure what the draw is but it’s the favorite of all three of our girls.
Bonnie continues to morph back into puppy mode, (if indeed she ever left it) to be the first in line to rough house and play tug of war with Bess. But Belle is relaxing her “I’m the mom” stance and is playing a lot more with Bess too so progress is being made.
Bonnie and Belle went to the vet yesterday for their x-rays to check for hip dysplasia. We will get the results from the OFA in a few weeks. Our vets and their staff are fantastic and I trust them fully but it was still difficult for me to leave Bonnie and Belle as they had to be put under an anesthetic for the x-ray. We were able to bring the pups home at the end of the day and this morning they are back to their old selves which this dog mom is happy about.
Bess had a round of tummy rumbles the past few days with several nights of limited sleep for both of us. I am happy to say that with the help of yogurt and bran flakes and medicine from the vet her tummy rumbles have subsided and we both had an uninterrupted sleep last night!
Looking forward to the coming year, not sure what it’s going to hold although we hope to continue with Bess’s puppy classes and keep working toward the Canine Good Citizen classification for Bonnie and Belle.
Happy New Year to you and your families from Greg, myself and our snuggly silly crew!
My turn!
Curled up with big sister Bonnie
Boy is she growing fast! In the past few weeks Bess has been showing us what she is made of.
She and Linus kitty are becoming good buddies and love to wrestle with each other. They take turns instigating the action.
Lucy kitty is still watchful and making sure the pup is behaving. she still can’t believe we would shake up her world by bringing another dog into it.
Bonnie pup and Bess love to play tug of war with the stuffingless toys.
Belle pup and Bess race each other and I’m not sure who enjoys it the most.
For something so little Bess does a great job keeping up with her big sisters.
Bess and I are attending puppy classes, and she got the hang of sit pretty good, but we are still working on gentle and touch. She’ll get it in time. She seems to enjoy playing with the other puppies that are in the class.
She is already showing us how she is different from her big sisters. She has a longer reach so the garbage can has to go even farther back behind the child gate. She is definitely more vocal than Bonnie and Belle. I am getting a kick out of how she rings the “gotta go” chime. All three pups have a different way of ringing the chime. Bonnie gives the chime a hard nudge with her nose, if that doesn’t bring us she puts her head in the middle of the chime and gives a good shake. Belle gives a dainty nudge with her nose, if we don’t hear her she touches the chimes one at a time that makes for a beautiful sound. Bess jumps up on her back paws and uses her front paws to ring the bell. One paw first but then if we don’t respond or if she really has to go badly both paws at one time kind of like a forceful double high five!
All in all it’s going great, of course we are still transitioning and learning Bess’s ways, like what it means when she sits and stares at us. So far it has meant, I would like a tummy rub please, or I have to go out, or I want a toy that I can’t reach or …
One thing we do know is that our Bess Sprout pup is a wonderful, fun, loving addition to our family and she is loved dearly.
Hello!
Bessie has had a busy two weeks. She seems more like a Bess than a Bessie and she spends just as much time being called Sprout. The Jolly Green Giant from Green Giant vegetables had a sidekick named Sprout who thought he was big like the Giant. Bess seems to think she can do anything Bonnie and Belle can do hence Sprout.
The pups
Linus and Lucy are getting used to having Bess in their life. Lucy tries to ignore her much like she does Bonnie, Belle and Linus. Linus however is game and he and Bess seem to have fun together.
Let’s play!
Bess is proving to be a quick learner especially where the “gotta go” chime is concerned. She has figured out that ringing the chime means the door opens and she gets to go out in the pup porch and pen. I was washing dishes the other evening and heard the chime. I turned fully expecting to see Bonnie pup imagine my surprise when Bess’s little face looked back at me. I snapped her leash on and out we went. She went right to the bone that the older pups had left on the porch. She wanted the bone and she figured out what she had to do to go out and get it. Not wanting to lose a teachable moment we continued out to the pup yard.
We had our first puppy class last week. Where we learned Find It, Soft Mouth, and Gotcha. Soft Mouth is easily my favorite as Bess has sharp little puppy teeth!
She is going pretty good when it comes to chewing on things. Lucky for her, she joined a family that has an abundance of chewy toys.
So many toys to chose from!
Bonnie and Belle are getting used to having Bess in the mix.
Judging by their looks and behavior they don’t quite know what to think about her but they have figured out that she’s fun to play with!
Bonnie and Bess
Did you see that!
All in all it’s been a good week!
Our pets morning routines differ for each one of them.
Bonnie pup sets off her Bonnie Bark Alarm when she feels it’s time to get up or she thinks she is missing out on something. Thank goodness she is now back to sleeping in past 4:00am. When I open her crate door she just stands there for a bit relishing in the fact that she can come out of her crate but wanting to do so when she wants to.
Belle pup is our late sleeper and will open a sleepy eye to look at me when I open her crate door. Often she stays put to get a few more minutes of sleep. Then she slowly stretches her way out of the crate and into the room and comes to me as if to say “Well Good Morning, I’m up!”
The pups then wait in the living room for Greg to come down stairs and enjoys a quick good morning love and cuddle that starts the day out well for all 3 of them. During the course of the early morning each pup comes to me at separate times for a love and cuddle from me.
Linus kitty will meow a good morning unless he is busy elsewhere in the house. He usually quiet in the morning unless he is mousing then he’s anything but quiet! Linus is still learning that cuddles are a good thing, he prefers quick drive by pats.
Lucy our matriarch kitty greets us with a good morning meow then proceeds to follow both Greg and I from room to room and surface to surface until she gets a good morning hug and a cuddle. If we don’t see or hear her she reaches out a paw as we walk by and snag us which usually works well to get our attention.
No matter how they greet us, the morning isn’t complete without their good morning greeting.
Now that things are settling down and there is a bit more time I decided it was time to start working again with Bonnie and Belle on leash walking. We live in the country and have a long lane which makes it the perfect place to start practicing. After they remember how to walk on a leash politely then we will start going into town to practice. Our goal is to be able to take them with us when we go to antique car shows, parks, parades ect…
I’m taking the pups out one at a time for a couple of reasons. First so we have some one on one time and second because combined the pups almost weigh as much as I do so it’s easier for me to control one at a time.
Belle got to go out first this time She did pretty good staying by me and walking at a fast but controlled speed. She did a great job listening to the “leave it” command when a bunny ran not once but twice in front of her. She also did great when I told her to “leave it” when she saw a cat cross the road a few feet from her. She did get scared though when a big truck zoomed passed our lane we were close to the road. We also practiced sitting a few times during our walk.
When it was Bonnie’s turn she kind of wiggled, hopped, and really wanted to run. Luckily the bunny stayed in the corn field this time as did the cat. Because I have a feeling she wouldn’t have listened to the “leave it” command as well as Belle did. However she didn’t have much of a reaction when it came to traffic passing our lane. When we practiced sitting during our walk she gave me a look that said “You want me to what?! “I mean there’s all this exciting stuff out here to explore and you want me to sit!” But even though she didn’t want to she did eventually sit.
All in all both pups did very well for the first night of our refresher course in polite leash walking.
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